Wednesday, May 25, 2011

I didn't do that great this week. I had decided last week that I really need to focus on the children more and have been having great lesson times with them. But I had to sacrifice my exercise time in the morning. I understand it is important to take care of myself. I understand that I need to exercise. But I was getting to the end of my morning and wondering where it went. We have been getting out more to the park and for walks, so I am more active than I have been. My snacking was terrible though, as was my water and tea consumption again. Though these last few days I have been working on improving those. I don't think I met any of my goals. However, I did lose .8 pounds, so I am pleased.

Previous Weight: 222.4

Today's Weight: 221.6

Weight loss from last week: .8

Total weight loss for May: 2.4

Total Loss since weight loss journey got serious on December 13th 2010: 40.3!!

I was also pleased to notice the other day that Plus Size Bloggers is starting a new challenge for the summer months- June 6-Aug 29. Head on over to check it out.

If you would like some encouragement on your weight loss journey I invite you over to Tots and Me (my main/homeschooling blog) to enter my giveaway for Chicken Soup for the Soul: Shaping Up the New You. I even have some extra entries for anyone who is on a weight loss journey. Come check it out!!!

Thursday, May 19, 2011

*I will drink 2 glasses of water before each meal. Nope*I will drink 1 cup of green tea each day. Nope*I will not snack between meals or while cooking/preparing meals. Nope*I will not eat after supper.Nope*I will not eat any candy, cake, frosting, ice cream, "sweet" cereals (Frosted mini wheats do not count), etc. I am committing to this on a weekly basis. Nope*I will exercise for at least a half an hour every day. Hope to get the Wii fit routine in at least 3 days and the Aerobics DVD in at least 2 days. Other days I am hoping to walk or at the very least step for 1/2 hour.Nope

Well, as you can see I didn't do so hot this week. I am really not sure what happened, but I was just feeling off this week. I was going back and forth deciding whether I wanted to continue to participate in the May Your Way challenge. There were a couple of new features that didn't sit well with me, but I wanted to have the accountability of the challenge. As a Christian their "mantras" and the new Friday Feature were not what I wanted to be associated with. As first I just decided to ignore those additions to the Sisterhood. I participated in the Sister Chat. But I struggled with trying to figure out the #tworkout. It was after last Tuesday evening that I started to get really upset. I couldn't figure out the #tworkout and I had been all set to exercise. So, instead of exercising anyway, I sat on my behind. Duh! Then when I saw the results when I weighed in I just about lost it. I had exercised everyday the week before, I had drank my water and tea, I hadn't snacked. And what did I have to show for it? A lousy two tenths of a pound lost. I know people tell me it was a loss and I am doing great. But I didn't feel that way. I had been losing an average of 3 pounds a week. I thought for sure I would blow past the 220 pound goal by or around my birthday. I haven't made it there yet and it is over a month since my birthday.

So anyway, I decided to add in the night exercising again, wondering if that was what had made the difference all those weeks. But something just came over me this last week. I broke every stinking goal I made for myself. I just didn't care. I liked the idea of the point system that had been initiated with the May Your Way Challenge. Until I realized that to receive my point for keeping my goals I needed to keep every single goal. And I have a lot. As soon as I missed one glass of water or ate one extra sweet treat or sneaked one bite of food while cooking I failed at my goals. At least as far as the challenge was concerned. My hubby suggested it would be better if they had people pick a certain number of goals and then get a point for each goal that was kept. I loved his idea. That way if I missed my water goal I could still have gotten the points for the goals I did meet. The thing is, I have decided not to participate any longer because of the concerns mentioned above. Plus I decided it wasn't worth my time to sit and chat for an hour while I should be getting ready for bed. I did it two weeks in a row, just so I could get the "point" and I missed the board because of not being able to participate in the #tworkout. It also bothered me that I would never get a reply to my questions when I left a comment. So, though I enjoyed my time and the accountability these last few months, I have got to move on.

I am going to try to keep most of my goals (though I am changing them up a bit), but it won't mess everything up if I happen to miss one one day. I can put it behind me and start over. I just wish there was a way I could motivate myself more. I have decided to not wake up early in the morning and exercise. I am trying to restructure my day because our homeschool has really been suffering because of my fixation with exercising. I would wake up early, get in an hour or more of exercise. If the children woke up I would let them eat while I exercised. Then I would have to nurse the baby and get myself breakfast before being able to get the children dressed, and their hair and teeth brushed. By the time I was done with that and cleaning up from breakfast it was past 10:00 and we were maybe getting a chance to get some school in. I was tired from getting up early. Hadn't been getting to bed on time. Hubby mentioned that probably was affecting the weight loss (or lack thereof) too. And I agree. So I am going to try to be more active during the day, maybe exercise a couple of days in the morning, do stepping at night while watching TV, take walks, I don't know. I do know I have got to get out of the habit of snacking and back into the habit of drinking my water and tea (though it has been nice not having to go to the bathroom every five minutes). And I have to get back into reading my Bible or at least listening to the new daily Bible plan app on my phone.

New goals (but will not beat myself up if I miss one)

*I will drink 2 glasses of water before each meal. Keeping this one the same*I will drink 1 cup of green tea each day. Keeping this one the same*I will not snack between meals or while cooking/preparing meals. Keeping this one the same*I will not eat after supper.Keeping this one the same*I will limit myself to one sweet treat a day right after a meal, preferable lunch but not written in stone. This is obviously a change.*I need to get in at least 3 days of exercise, not sure how just yet.

*I will wake up in the morning, get kids dressed and breakfasted and get ready to do lessons. (The last few days since starting our new curriculum we have been seated at the school table by 9 or 9:30 and I feel great about it)

* I will read or listen to my Bible.

Anyhow, even though I had a rough week I lost .5 pounds this week. And that weight was taken with out exercising first. I always see a loss after exercising, so if I had had time for exercise this morning I may have shown a bigger loss, though I can't prove it of course. Go figure, I lost more weight by being bad than I did last week when I followed everything. Can you see my frustration?

No pictures today as my memory card is full.

Previous Weight: 222.9

Today's Weight: 222.4

Weight loss from last week: .5

Total weight loss for May: 1.6

Total Loss since weight loss journey got serious on December 13th 2010: 39.5

If you would like some encouragement on your weight loss journey I invite you over to Tots and Me (my main/homeschooling blog) to enter my giveaway for Chicken Soup for the Soul: Shaping Up the New You. I even have some extra entries for anyone who is on a weight loss journey. Come check it out!!!

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

I am really not sure what I want to post this week. I thought I was having a great week. I kept my goals, I exercised every day. And yet the scale definitely did not show it this week. What happened????

Here are my goals I listed on May 1st:

*I will drink 2 glasses of water before each meal. Check*I will drink 1 cup of green tea each day. Check*I will not snack between meals or while cooking/preparing meals. Check*I will not eat after supper. Check*I will not eat any candy, cake, frosting, ice cream, "sweet" cereals (Frosted mini wheats do not count), etc. I am committing to this on a weekly basis. Check, I only had one sweet this week as planned, at the Mother/Daughter Banquet we went to on Saturday. This week I will again allow myself 1 day of something sugary. I almost was going to give up on this altogether, but I don't want to give in just because I am upset. Keeping this as a goal helps me stay motivated because I am accountable.*I will exercise for at least a half an hour every day. Hope to get the Wii fit routine in at least 3 days and the Aerobics DVD in at least 2 days. Other days I am hoping to walk or at the very least step for 1/2 hour.Check. Did my Wii Fit Yoga/Strength routine every day and got in my DVD several times. We even took walks this week and tried out a Dance routine on Netflix.

Compared to last week I think I did great this week.

And yet I lost more last week than I did this week. As a matter of fact this is one of my worst weeks this year. I am very very frustrated. It is reminding me of two years ago when I was exercising and just kept flip flopping, not really losing anything. I have to admit that at least I am losing. I am continuing to slowly lose weight. But I thought for sure I had had a better week. I even measured myself and was disappointed that there has not been much change since the end of the Plus Size Blogger's March contest.

Enough said on that subject. Complaining won't change this week's results.

Moving on to the Sisterhood challenges.

I definitely enjoyed this week's SisterChat more than last week's. I had the girls in bed in time and I was able to focus. I planned on joining in on the #tworkout last night. I had changed my clothes and everything, had the girls in bed, got on my Twitter... and couldn't figure out how in the world to "participate." I had even planned on participating in the Biggest Loser/Subway Twitter party. I am a complete newbie when it comes to Twitter, though I have had an account for a while. The most I do is post about giveaways. And my Tots and Me blog is linked up, so my posts are posted. Other than that, I have no idea how to use # and @ or where to post or anything. If anyone can help me I would love to hear from you. I was so ready to workout last night.

I was looking forward to seeing what the Sisterhood Says Challenge would be for this week. I did great with my water this past week. It helped that it was already one of my goals. This week I need to get in 5 servings of fruits and veges every day. I get lots of veges in usually. I will just have to make sure I get the specific servings in.

I had been hoping that participating in the 31 Days to Clean Challenge this month would help me with the weight loss as I am supposed to be up and cleaning each day. I have had a hard time keeping up with this challenge too.

Anyhow, here are this week's results:

Today's weight:

Last week's weight:

Previous Weight: 223.1

Today's Weight: 222.9

Weight loss from last week: .2

Total weight loss for May Your Way: 1.1

Total Loss since weight loss journey got serious on December 13th 2010: 39

If you would like some encouragement on your weight loss journey I invite you over to Tots and Me (my main/homeschooling blog) to enter my giveaway for Chicken Soup for the Soul: Shaping Up the New You. I even have some extra entries for anyone who is on a weight loss journey or who is participating in May Your Way. Come check it out!!!

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Well, we started this challenge just a few short days ago and it is already time to check in. Can you believe I already messed up my goals for the month? Maybe I was a little too ambitious? I just wanted to get back on track to what worked for me in Jan, Feb and March. Doesn't help that this week officially started on May 1st, but I had a baby shower to go to on Saturday. I know, I know. I could have opted to eat just the healthy foods, of which there were plenty. But Steven, Krystal and I made the cake and I could not help myself. And of course I "sampled" the frosting Friday night when it was being made. This didn't affect the goals, but I think it may have affected the weight.

Here are my goals I listed on May 1st:

*I will drink 2 glasses of water before each meal. I have forgotten a few times.*I will drink 1 cup of green tea each day. Check*I will not snack between meals or while cooking/preparing meals. I have nibbled a bit while preparing meals.*I will not eat after supper. Check*I will not eat any candy, cake, frosting, ice cream, "sweet" cereals (Frosted mini wheats do not count), etc. I am committing to this on a weekly basis. I really thought I would do better with this. Unfortunately I decided to help myself to some of the Jello, Cool whip and marshmallows from the girls' April Showers Bring May Flowers dessert tray on Monday. I couldn't decide if I was counting these as "sugar/sweets." And because I had already messed up I gave in to 2 fingerfuls of leftover frosting. And you know what, it wasn't even what I wanted, didn't taste that great.*I will exercise for at least a half an hour every day. Hope to get the Wii fit routine in at least 3 days and the Aerobics DVD in at least 2 days. Other days I am hoping to walk or at the very least step for 1/2 hour. I actually didn't get to exercise the first day of the challenge (Sunday). But I did exercise the following three days, getting in my routine, plus today I got in the Aerobics DVD.

After rethinking my goals I have decided they are all going to stay the same, except one. I will allow myself one day this week to have one sweet, but it has to be at lunch time.

I am looking forward to participating in another SisterChat on Monday. I will have to say it moved really fast. It was really hard for me to keep up with the conversation. I don't have a lot of practice "chatting." On the other hand, I completely forgot about the #tworkout last night. Of course, Hannah was refusing to go to bed, so that complicated matters all the way around. And I am still a little unsure how that works anyway. I was hoping to find out yesterday. Guess there is next week.

I was looking forward to seeing what the Sisterhood Says Challenge would be for this week. I think I will be able to do this one. We are supposed to drink 64 oz of water each day this week. With my 1 cup of water while I exercise and 2 before each meal, and the one I drink before bed, I've got this! Now, I just have to remember to drink. It sure was easier when I used to work and take two 32 oz bottles of water along with me. I knew I was (or wasn't) finishing the water. At least with my above schedule I won't lose count.

I am also hoping that participating in the 31 Days to Clean Challenge this month will help me with the weight loss as I will be up and cleaning each day.

Anyhow, here are this week's results:

Today's weight

Starting weight:

This week's exercise:

Though once again I forgot to add the DVD to the log.

I had Tabitha take this picture, so it is from a different angle as usual and it doesn't really look like I lost weight from last month:

Previous Weight: 224

Today's Weight: 223.1

Weight loss from last week: .9

Total weight loss for May Your Way: .9

Total Loss since weight loss journey got serious on December 13th 2010: 38.8

If you would like some encouragement on your weight loss journey I invite you over to Tots and Me (my main/homeschooling blog) to enter my giveaway for Chicken Soup for the Soul: Shaping Up the New You. I even have some extra entries for anyone who is on a weight loss journey or who is participating in May Your Way. Come check it out!!!

Monday, May 2, 2011

Well, seeing as my challenge idea didn't go over very well, I have decided to take my extra copy of Chicken Soup for the Soul: Shaping the New You and offer it as a giveaway. If you are looking for an inspiring read, some encouragement on your weight loss journey this book would be great for you. Here is a list of the sections:

Getting Started
Exercise Can Be Fun
To Err Is Human
Regaining Control
The Gym
Liking Myself
Having a Partner
Telling Myself the Truth
Foods that Made a Difference
Off the Beaten Path

Well, there is a new challenge up at the Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans for May. It is called May Your Way. No teams or groups this time. I get to be responsible for myself. That could be a good thing. Nobody else to take down with me when I don't do so well. This past few weeks have been really bad, especially when you consider I lost approximately 10 pounds in January, 10 pounds in February and 10 pounds in March, but only 3 pounds in April. I have got to get back on track and I believe this challenge will help me do just that.

I am planning on reviewing my goals each week to see how I am doing and change them if I have to. But for now, here are my goals.

I would love to lose another 10 pounds during this challenge.
I will drink 2 glasses of water before each meal.
I will drink 1 cup of green tea each day.
I will not snack between meals or while cooking/preparing meals.
I will not eat after supper.
I will not eat any candy, cake, frosting, ice cream, "sweet" cereals (Frosted mini wheats do not count), etc. I am committing to this on a weekly basis.
I will exercise for at least a half an hour every day. Hope to get the Wii fit routine in at least 3 days and the Aerobics DVD in at least 2 days. Other days I am hoping to walk or at the very least step for 1/2 hour.

When I was doing this I was losing weight. I also hope to get to bed by 11pm, 12 at the latest. But I am not going to commit to this.
I will start my day with the Bible and then my exercise. Gotta remember to set the alarm. At least Hannah isn't in my room anymore.

I am starting this challenge using last week's weight, which is 224. I am so looking forward to being out of the 220's!
Weight at start of May Your Way Challenge: 224Total Loss since weight loss journey got serious on December 13th 2010: 37.9

About Me

I am a stay at home mom. I have always wanted to teach, started college with a major in Early Education, but ended up staying home with my son (which turned into staying home with my 2 sons and daughter). Years later ended up with an Associates Degree in Human Services. Which helped me get a director's position at the Montessori I was working at. I am now staying home with my 3 young children. While my older children are off in public school we are homeschooling. I am doing what I always dreamed of doing, teaching!! I feel this is where God has led and willed me to be. I will be here to "Train up [my children] in the way [they] should go: [so] when [they are] old, [they] will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6